Deaimon

From the very first moment this show started I was immediately transported back to my early anime watching days. In particular I was reminded of one anime that is very near and dear to my heart and I should definitely rewatch in the near future; Barakamon. The setup is similar in a way, but very different in other ways. A young man goes (back) to the countryside to work on a craft and ends up having to take care of a young child. But I am getting a little bit ahead of myself. Let’s talk a little bit about this season’s standout slice of life anime: Deaimon. 

Nagomu has been living and studying in Tokyo for a while but returns home to his family’s Dagashiya – traditional candy store – when he learns his father has been hospitalized. Ready to finally take over the family business, he finds that this position is going to someone else. A young girl called Itsuka, who has been left with the family to take care of by her father. Nagomu doesn’t let it get to him and instead slowly – and with slowly I mean blink and you miss it,  this man’s optimism knows no bounds – becomes a father figure for her. The story follows the two characters and their bond that’s slowly growing over time as well as several fun and interesting side characters.

Deaimon hits that sweet spot where it can be dramatic and griping without ever feeling oppressive. Some drama slice of life shows can feel oppressive in how dramatic they get. That isn’t a bad thing per se, but not always what you want out of a show. Sometimes it’s nice when you know any problems get resolved pretty quickly. Nagomu is a very likable character, Itsuka is a likable yet also believable character (children in anime can often feel overly mature for their age which takes me out of the story). The side characters are fun and it’s just a nice watch. I highly recommend this one folks.

Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road

It’s the Isekai flavor of the month, ladies and gentlemen. In a world where otherworlders are considered a plague because they end up getting too powerful and go crazy after a while, the church of the land spends its time killing any new people summoned to avoid future catastrophes. Menou is one such priestess and she’s tasked with killing the two newly summoned high schoolers. The first boy gets killed very quickly and efficiently. The second girl gets fatally stabbed without much issue too. Except this girl has the power of time control. And when she dies, time just reverts to before she is killed. She can revert time for herself and for the entire world, from the looks of it. 

Thus we end up following Menou as she tells Akari that she’s bringing her to the central church and then a sanctuary where she’ll be safe, while secretly she’s trying to find a way to kill her.
This show often feels like it’s trying to do something interesting but doesn’t do it well enough for it to actually have any impact. If I were to venture a guess, the heroes didn’t go crazy on their own and caused catastrophes but instead were driven to do so by an outside force. But since this is a 12 episode show, we don’t ever get to that point.
I found Momo and the princess’ little side story that we’re presented with from time to time a lot more interesting than the main story. Momo being Menou’s understudy and the princess just being a wildcard trying to figure things out on her own. All in all I stuck by this anime for the entire season because I knew it wasn’t going to overstay its welcome too much. If you’re on the fence about this one, I recommend just skipping out on it, it’s not all that great in my opinion.

Love after world domination

If it isn’t Romeo and Julliet for the millionth time. Fortunately for us, this version of the tale is done surprisingly well and is highly enjoyable.
Fudo is a member of the prestigious super hero organization of Gelato 5. He is the Red Gelato, which is clearly a spoof on the power rangers. Meanwhile Desumi is a member of the evil organization Gecko, where she is known as the merciless reaper princess. These  two organizations often clash in spectacular battles that the media covers regularly. What’s not covered is that during a lot of these fights Desumi and Fudo sneak away to go on a date together. Sometime after they first met they ended up liking each other and started dating while hiding it from everyone else. Hilarity ensues.

These shows ride or die on how likable the cast is and how witty the humor is. This could have very well been an extremely underwhelming show but because both of the main characters are lovable idiots but not so dumb that it gets grating, the show instead just becomes fun to watch. There’s your regular misunderstanding, there’s people finding out and there’s even some interesting side characters, mainly on Desumi’s side of the story, that help flesh out the entire story. The main focus is the romance of the two main characters which is growing steadily. They secretly go on dates, learn more about each other and Desumi even invites Fudo over to her dorm room which is in the center of Gecko territory. There’s hijinxes at school where several of Desumi’s coworkers also go to school, and we even have a visit from Desumi’s family, which includes a sister who used to look up to her but is going through a phase right now.
All things considered this fun, light hearted anime does what it set out to do pretty well and doesn’t overstay its welcome at all. I highly recommend it if you’re look for a rom com this season.

And there you have it, folks. Three more shows reviewed, with a few more coming. Let me know if there’s any other shows you’d like to see a quick review on. I have some shows planned for a longer review instead, so this might be the last one for this season, but I expect to watch more shows next season. I’ll probably have enough room to do two of these for just sequels alone, the season is going to be absolutely stacked with Overlord, The devil is a part-timer, Rental Girlfriend and even more Dr Stone. Are there any new shows I absolutely shouldn’t skip out on? Please let me know in the comments down below and as always, thanks for reading.